Typically, a conventional food container is formed from a bottom shell, which can hold food, paired to a compatible closing lid. There are many different varieties of food containers and they are well known. Some food containers are made of different materials, such as plastic, glass, Styrofoam, etc. As such, some food containers are meant for temporary storage and immediate disposal and some containers are meant to be kept for longer periods of time or general appliance purposes. Further, food containers are used by a variety of different users. Some food containers are made for consumer purposes while others are made for commercial, restaurant service purposes.
Therefore, in general, food containers are used for a variety of reasons, which include to store food for later consumption or in order to transport food from one location to another. For example, on many occasions, people serve food in one location, e.g., a kitchen, and have to walk to another location where they are going to sit down and eat, e.g., a dining room table or an outdoor patio. For these reasons, development of food containers in which the top and bottom pieces interlock, preventing food from falling out or spilling if the container is dropped, have emerged. Additionally, users normally own more than one of these containers, and therefore, development of food containers in which the tops and bottoms, respectively, are designed to stack amongst one another to facilitate storage have also emerged. Finally, food containers which have the capability to, once the tops and bottoms are coupled to one another, stack atop one another and interlock into a singular structure, have emerged, allowing a user to carry multiple food containers at the same time for serving purposes. These efforts, however, have failed to address the need for food containers which are capable of stacking onto a drinking cup and creating a singular structure allowing the user to carry a drinking cup and a food container, or multiple stacked food containers, with a single hand.
Several known plate attachment assemblies are capable of attaching to a drinking cup. However, many of these assemblies consist of a plate which is capable of clipping onto a drinking cup by some fashion. Therefore, many of these assemblies do not incorporate a cover. Although some of the known plate attachment assemblies which are capable of attaching to a drinking cup incorporate a cover, none of these assemblies which incorporate a cover are capable of interlocking, such that the cover and the plate twist into a locked configuration forming a sealed and sturdy food container able to be securely stacked on top of a drinking cup. Moreover, the known plate attachment assemblies which incorporate a cover and are capable of attaching to a drinking cup are not capable of stacking more than one plate attachment assembly on top of another and onto the drinking cup to create a singular structure.
Other known plate attachment assemblies are capable of interlocking into a locked configuration with respect to the container portion and the cover. However, most of these assemblies are not able to be stacked atop one another in a secure position once the container portion and the cover are interlocked. Although there are some known plate attachment assemblies which are capable of interlocking and securely stacking atop one another once the container portion and the cover are interlocked, these assemblies are not capable of attaching to a drinking cup.
Some other known plate attachment assemblies which consist of a bottom shell and a lid are capable of twisting and interlocking, such as U.S. Pat. No. 9,326,625 (Esfahani). These assemblies also utilize a series of locking protrusions and apertures shaped and sized to restrain the locking protrusions once they are in a locked configuration. However, there are several drawbacks to these devices; for example, these devices do not allot for a method of securing the assembly to a drinking cup nor do they allow for the secure stacking of multiple assemblies atop one another or atop a drinking cup, thereby making these assemblies less efficient and narrower in their possible functionalities.
Therefore, a need exists to overcome the problems with the prior art as discussed above.